An Unhappy 5th Birthday For The Tea Party … Five years after the Republican Party birthed the tea party movement, mother and child have never been more at odds. — The tension between “establishment” Republicans and tea party activists was on full display today at a 5th Anniversary event in Washington.

GOP blocks veterans bill — Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans. — In a 56-41 vote Thursday, the motion to waive a budget point of order against the bill failed, as Democrats fell short …

Now on your restaurant bill: Obamacare fee — Several restaurants in a Florida chain are asking customers to help foot the bill for Obamacare. — Diners at eight Gator's Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes to 15 cents on a typical $15 lunch tab.

Boehner says Republicans will lead, but backs away from votes — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday defended the House GOP's go-slow approach on immigration, tax reform and replacing ObamaCare, saying the party wanted to avoid repeating mistakes Democrats made and had to face the “reality” of its limited power in Washington.

Not safe to display American flag in American high school — Today's Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School Dist. (9th Cir. Feb. 27, 2014) upholds a California high school's decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. (See here and here for more on this case.)

Bradley A. Smith: Connecting the Dots in the IRS Scandal — The ‘smoking gun’ in the targeting of conservative groups has been hiding in plain sight. — The mainstream press has justified its lack of coverage over the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups because there's been no …

Gay marriages recognized in Kentucky for now — At least for now, Kentucky must recognize same-sex marrriages performed in states where it is legal. — U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn today made final a ruling issued earlier this month in which he found that Kentucky's marriage amendment …

The Mammoth Cometh — The first time Ben Novak saw a passenger pigeon, he fell to his knees and remained in that position, speechless, for 20 minutes. He was 16. At 13, Novak vowed to devote his life to resurrecting extinct animals. At 14, he saw a photograph of a passenger pigeon in an Audubon Society book and “fell in love.”

HotJesus: Must He be sexy? — Editor's note: Carol Costello anchors the 9 to 11 a.m. ET edition of CNN's “Newsroom” each weekday. Watch at 9:40 a.m. ET Thursday for a discussion of the new film about Jesus. — (CNN) — Clearly Jesus was sexy. — After all, He is the Son of God.

Harlem pastor makes bizarre homophobic claim about president on church sign: ‘Obama has released the homo demons on the black man’ — Pastor James David Manning's homophobic sign was unveiled Sunday in front of the ATLAH World Missionary Church near the corner of W. 123rd St and Lenox Ave.

Complete Results: New York Times/CBS News February Poll — The nationwide poll was conducted Feb. 19 to 23 by landline and cellphone among 1,644 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 6 points for Republicans, Democrats and independents.

Bitcoin: By The Privileged, For The Privileged — A protester stands outside of Mt Gox headquarters in Tokyo after the Bitcoin banking site's collapse. — CREDIT: AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi — Every once in a while — most recently with the collapse of online exchange site Mt Gox …

Martha Raddatz to split hosting duties on ABC's ‘This Week’ — Martha Raddatz, the primary substitute for George Stephanopoulos on ABC's “This Week,” will now anchor the show about every other week, effectively splitting the Sunday affairs program between two hosts, network sources told POLITICO.

Obamacare's Failed State Exchanges — The federal government spent more than $1.2 billion on state-based online insurance portals that remain broken. — The federal government spent more on broken state-run exchanges than it did on its own troubled system.

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